


Sickness - Epilogue

by tcarroll_12



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, One Big Happy Family, Parent Alec Hardy, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23010319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcarroll_12/pseuds/tcarroll_12
Summary: Just some stupid cute fluff I thought up today :) takes place one evening during Alec Hardy's home care after "Sickness".In which Alec reveals an odd food habit that even Ellie wouldn't have guessed, and gets up to shenanigans she wouldn't have thought possible.
Relationships: Alec Hardy & Daisy Hardy, Alec Hardy & Ellie Miller, Alec Hardy & Fred Miller, Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller, Daisy Hardy & Ellie Miller
Comments: 7
Kudos: 77





	Sickness - Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> second chapter will be a bit more angsty, I think, but chapter 1 can be read on its own without continuing if you prefer to leave it uber-happy. :)
> 
> Location: Alec's blue riverside house from season 2. I'm only just now rewatching s3 so I haven't got a good enough look at the white house yet. Besides, a one-person place seems more full and happy with multiple people to me than a larger space.

Alec Hardy awoke to the sound of humming. He stayed still, trying to work around the medicated fogginess of his brain and calmly work out where he was and what was going on. Slowly, it all came back to him. 

After four more days in hospital with pneumonia, the doctors had finally deemed him healthy enough to rest at home; his condition was no longer life-threatening, he’d finished the course of strong antibiotics that had messed with his stomach (to the point where he required the use of an NG tube), and there was nothing left to do but rest and take pain meds and slowly get better, much to his annoyance when he was lucid enough to think about it.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, though: Daisy was on spring break the following week and volunteered—demanded, really—to stay with him the whole time. At first Hardy had objected, but he’d been outnumbered and not in any real position to reject her help, however much it might rankle him. Ellie, for her part, was infinitely grateful, as she constantly worried about Hardy’s pride preventing him from getting the help he needed, especially this week. However, she couldn’t spare the entire length of days to be with him with their current case load; furthermore, having Daisy around would be immensely beneficial to the grouchy Scot. However gruff and asocial he was most of the time, he had an immense father's heart for his daughter—and for Fred too. Even Tom was slowly warming up to him, to Ellie’s endless amazement. Daisy Hardy could get her stubborn father to do pretty much anything in the world for her—including acquiescing to receiving the care his battered body and brain desperately required.

The first few days at home, he’d been too exhausted to complain much, spending most of his time knocked out, but as the medication dosage slowly decreased, he became more and more like his usual surly self, a sight that relieved Ellie and Daisy both.

Now, on the fourth day, he sat up ever so gingerly and reached for the mobile on the table. Half seven, but no missed calls or texts. He couldn’t stop himself from being miffed that Miller hadn’t contacted him since the morning.

His brow furrowed. Half seven. _Bloody hell_. He’d been asleep for nine whole hours. 

Movement in the kitchen pulled his bleary focus in that direction. Daisy swayed on her feet next to the cabinets, headphones in, humming the songs playing in her ears and… doing something to the cabinet. 

Slowly, testing his sleep-groggy limbs, he tottered across the living space and came into view of the dreaded cabinet where he’d smacked his attacker’s head almost a year prior. His right hand involuntarily twitched at the memory; absentmindedly Hardy rubbed the black synthetic covering over the two mechanical fingers that replaced the ones he'd lost during his capture. Although he’d painted all the cabinets white with Ellie’s help, and even given them new handles, he still got occasional flashbacks. 

Hardy stared dumbly at the side of the cabinet, which was no longer pure white. Daisy was… _painting_ on it, the white coat vanishing beneath a colorful explosion of swirls and flowers.

He turned a chair round to face her, loudly scraping it on the floor, and plopped down on it; as he’d hoped, his daughter turned round in surprise at the noise and nearly dropped her brush. “Dad!”

He nodded toward the artwork, raising his eyebrows questioningly, but not angry in any way. Despite being lucid enough for words, he had no idea what to say.

Daisy beamed, her proud smile shining into Alec's dusty soul. “I’m leaving my mark,” she said simply, dropped the brush in the mug she was using for water, and pulled her headphones down around her neck. “How do you feel?” 

Hardy thought for a moment, mentally poking his body, and said what he discovered with a shrug. “Fine. No worse than the morning.” 

Daisy sat gingerly on his lap and wrapped her arms around him. After a few moments of silence, each enjoying the other’s presence, Hardy quipped, “This what comes of going stir-crazy, takin' care of a grumpy old arse? Suddenly van Gogh makes a lot more sense.”

“ _Dad._ ” Daisy squeezed him in reprimand and helped him up. Arm around his daughter’s waist, he inspected the artwork, broken heart swelling with love and pride. “I love it.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Now you’ll keep me in mind no matter where I am,” Daisy declared softly, nestling further into Alec's arms. “And hopefully you’ll start taking care of yourself,” she added quietly after a moment.

A wave of guilt crashed over Alec. He sighed through his nose, but rather than let it carry him off decided to try and lift their moods. “Aye. You really think Miller would let me get away with it any longer?” 

As if simply speaking her name summoned her, suddenly Ellie was there unlocking the door and stepping up inside the living room. He glanced at her and laughed once, then back down at his daughter. “Seriously. Between the two of you, _that’s_ the way I’ll go. My obituary will read ‘DI Alec Hardy, nattered to death by Ellie and Daisy.’” 

“Quite right, you grumpy old sod!” Ellie said cheerfully, coming into the kitchen, laden with bags and—

Alec gasped in mock delight. “Wee Fred!” He clapped his hands and Miller gladly handed Fred off to Hardy, setting takeaway bags onto the table. It was impossible not to smile at the change “wee Fred" always brought out in the grouchy inspector. She caught Daisy’s eye and they shared a grin. They were almost like a family. _Hell, they_ were _a family._

“Wouldn’t stop saying ‘Uncle Alec' the whole way over,” said Ellie, distributing the food. “Little bugger couldn’t wait to see you.” Daisy retrieved her father’s pillbox and got out the evening medications for him, then put the kettle on to boil. Alec sat down in his usual spot, bouncing Fred on his knee, and opened his box. “Oh, this from that new seafood place by the pier?” Ellie had got him salmon tacos with… brown rice and broccoli with some kind of dark sauce. He caught a whiff, and suddenly his stomach was roaring for it. Holding Fred secure with one hand, he started looking for cutlery with the other. 

“Yep,” said Ellie, taking the seat opposite so Daisy could sit next to her dad. “Already has quite a following. Danny brought in a catering platter last week, they’re really good. And heart-healthy,” she added, gesturing toward his chest with her knife. “What are you looking for?”

“Knife and fork,” he grunted, finding neither in the bag to his dismay.

“Ha!” Daisy crowed, jumping up to grab some from the drawer. “I told you he would!”

Ellie stared at him in disbelief. “Alec, they’re _tacos_ , you don’t eat them with—”

“I do,” he interrupted flatly, accepting the instruments from his daughter and fixing Ellie with a classic pointed stare, but without any heat behind it.

“Looks like you owe me a tenner,” Daisy said gleefully, returning to her seat. Alec stared at them in disbelief. “You made a _bet?"_

“I knew you were weird, Hardy, but even I didn’t think you were _that_ weird,” Ellie sighed, pulling a smaller box out of the bag with a shake of her head. This box contained little Fred's portion, a small cheese and chicken quesadilla. 

“Here,” Alec offered, pulling it to his side of the table. Spotting his food, Fred crowed happily, and before Ellie could object, Alec was cutting it into bite-size pieces for the tot. She looked on in amazement as Daisy, in similar disbelief, snuck snapshots of the moment on her mobile. _My God,_ Ellie thought, suddenly fighting back tears. _I’ve never seen him so happy._

_He might actually make it through this._

She and Daisy shared a long look as Alec, still smiling and oblivious, scooped some of his rice and a couple pieces of broccoli into Fred's box. “Alright, wee Fred, there we are!” Fred babbled his thanks, and they both tucked in to their respective meals. 

Alec saw neither the looks on the women's faces, nor how they squeezed each other’s hands in the first real glimpse of hope. They both watched the boys eat for a few moments, Alec offering Fred a bit of salmon and Fred demanding he eat a piece of the quesadilla in return. Suddenly Hardy, without looking up, said shortly, “I can feel you both staring at me, that’s impolite.” Daisy blushed and concentrated on eating, but Ellie just cocked an eyebrow and replied, “You do it all the time.”

“Yeah, cos I’m not polite!” quipped the inspector without missing a beat. He nailed Ellie with a so what? gaze and shoved a floret into his mouth as Daisy snorted with laughter.

The group ate in comfortable silence for awhile, then the detectives started chatting about work. Alec was disappointed that he’d missed out on two confessions in a single day, and Ellie recruited him for the massive task of end-of-month and -quarter file organization. He grudgingly accepted, but Ellie called his bluff, knowing full well he was just about going stir crazy and dying to be within CID walls again. He tried to convince her that he wasn’t that desperate--this would be nothing but mounds of paperwork being reorganized, bundled up and shipped off to be electronically imaged--but she was having none of it. Daisy, for her part, watched them snark back and forth like a tennis match with great amusement, and wondered not for the first time if her dad even knew how obvious his feelings for Ellie were.

During the meal, the weather slowly turned sour. What had begun as a drizzle as Ellie drove over from her dad's flat had become a full-on downpour by the time they were taking tea after dinner. Hardy closed and locked all but one window, leaving it cracked to appreciate the ambiance the wet weather brought. It reminded him of Scotland, and Daisy loved it too, despite never having visited the place. 

At some point Ellie excused herself to the restroom; Fred was babbling to Uncle Alec about a beard and squishing his pudgy little face. Daisy had to laugh; with the lack of his pronunciation skills, it sounded like the toddler was asking for beer. 

Suddenly Alec grinned deviously and eyed the still-closed loo door. “That paint of yours, darlin, non-toxic, right?” 

Daisy’s eyes began to glow. Was he going to _paint_ a beard on wee Fred? Who _was_ this man and what had he done with her laconic, brooding father??

Hardy jerked his head toward the bedroom. “Go grab one of my suit jackets.” Balancing the babbling Miller boy on his bony hip, he retrieved the brush and paint from the kitchen counter. Setting him gently on the marbled surface, he cautioned the happily curious tot to “hold still, it’ll be a wee bit cold, but don’t wave all around, there’s a good lad!” and got right to work with a nice dark brown. Daisy soon returned to the kitchen to find, astonishingly, that was exactly what her father was doing. 

The toilet flushed. “Stall her!” Hardy hissed to Daisy. To the boy he said, “Careful now and don’t touch it for a bit, okay? When we’re all done I’ll let you do whatever you want to it but you mustn’t rub your face right now!” Fred gurgled his agreement and held out his arms; Alec returned him to the couch and quickly pulled his suit jacket round Fred’s tubby little body. Daisy had grabbed a pair of trousers as well; Alec didn’t hesitate to add them to Fred's outstretched legs, bunching up the cloth just a bit so the legs weren't _too_ long. “Right then, wee Fred!” he whispered jovially, slipping his reading glasses over Fred's face. “Keep them there, good lad!” Luckily Fred would do almost anything for Uncle Alec, and obediently clapped the frames to his ears, still babbling happily. 

Hardy rocked back on his heels to admire his work and just about died at the absurdity of it all. “Millahr!” he called out with exaggerated brogue, winking conspiratorially at the tot. “Ah thin’ we've go’ a case of iden’ity theft here!” 

Daisy had just enough presence of mind to activate the recorder on her mobile before collapsing into the chair in a fit of laughter; Ellie’s expression upon seeing Fred dolled up was beyond words, as was Fred's overall look. Alec grinned and plopped down on the couch next to the bespectacled Fred, tousled his own hair til it stood wildly in all directions like the boy's, and to the astonishment of all, popped his thumb in his mouth and pinned Ellie with the most innocent, wide-eyed expression he could. Like Daisy, Ellie was consumed with laughter and sank onto the floor, doubled over. 

“Now—now Fred,” she gasped as soon as she was able, “make an angry little face, go on!” So wee Fred scrunched up his pudgy face as best he could and folded his little arms, the jacket cloth comically flopping across his body. The adults roared with laughter until tears streamed down their faces and Alec had a coughing fit. When it subsided, Ellie looked at Fred and said, “So you’ll go with me to CID tomorrow and Uncle Alec will go to daycare then?” 

Alec grinned deviously at his friend and shrugged. “As long as you don’t try and breastfeed me tonight, we’re good.”

_“Dad!!”_ Daisy squealed in horror and delight and clapped her hands over her ears. Shocked, Miller just barely restrained herself from socking him in the arm, and the three dissolved into fits of laughter again. 

Outside, the storm howled on.


End file.
